The World Friendship Games have been postponed from 2024 to 2025, Maxim Agapitov, president of the Russian Weightlifting Federation (FTAR), said at a press conference dedicated to the holding of the national championship in the Novosibirsk region.

“Friendship Games were planned. Officially, I know that they were postponed to next year,” RIA Novosti quoted Agapitov as saying.

Initially, the Friendship Games were scheduled for September 15-29, 2024 in Moscow and Yekaterinburg. For the first time, the news about the possible postponement of the competition for a year appeared in the information space on June 1.

According to informed sources, the fate of the Friendship Games is being discussed with the country’s top leadership. Moreover, the possible postponement is associated not with the position of the IOC, but with the “recommendation of the International Friendship Association”.

The same International Friendship Association that was established in April by decree of the President of the Russian Federation just for the sake of … promoting the Friendship Games. But a few weeks after its formation, the Association recommended that the tournament not be held in 2024.

None of the officials have commented on the situation yet, but gymnast Dina Averina confirmed the postponement for some reason: “We knew for a long time that the Friendship Games would be postponed. The main thing is that the BRICS Games take place now, and then we’ll see what happens next.”

TV presenter Dmitry Guberniev also expressed skepticism about the likely postponement: “If the Friendship Games are postponed, poor athletes … They were promised mountains of gold, compensating for missing the Games in Paris.”

And now, for some reason, the head of the Weightlifting Federation announced no news. It turns out there is no one else.

In the presence of the relevant department and the Organizing Committee, for some reason, the successful manager Alexey Sorokin recently left, promising the winners of the Friendship Games medals made of pure gold and gorgeous prizes. Wonderful are your deeds, Lord!

And now, actually, the cherry on the cake. A comment on a given topic to the portal “Gazeta.Ru” from the Olympic champion in speed skating, State Duma deputy Svetlana Zhurova:

“Initially, these competitions were not included in the four—year plan – it included the Olympics. At the same time, there was a case when the Olympics were waited for five years because of the pandemic.

Many guys who did not go to the Olympics received compensation from the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), so they have financial support. But we wanted the Friendship Games to become a large-scale international competition. Now evil tongues will speak: they are being postponed because no one will come. That’s not why.

Firstly, first it was necessary for the IOC to show its face: they began to threaten athletes, come up with sanctions and disqualifications, and began to call different countries.

Until the last moment, we declared that the Friendship Games would take place, and this brought the IOC to the surface. And in other countries, too, they did not understand the position of the IOC: is it necessary to call everyone and try to dissuade them from participating by using threats? I think it was very correct not to announce the postponement of the competition until the last moment.”

The parliamentarian stressed that in the first months after a successful performance at the Olympics, athletes actively participate in events, meet with fans, give interviews and they do not have time and energy to train.

Therefore, they will not be ready to compete on equal terms at the Friendship Games with Russian athletes who have undergone centralized training.

“But coming to us in a year with the status of Olympic champions is a completely different matter. Everyone will be ready, and it will be a different competition, different layouts. So I think it’s objective.

We would like to see those who will become Olympic champions in Paris. Imagine if Chinese athletes don’t come for the reason mentioned above? There will be talk that China is no longer friends with us, and the West will resort to populist statements.

Although everyone understands perfectly well what the status of Olympic champions means for Chinese athletes. Therefore, it is not worth creating the wrong background. So the postponement of the Friendship Games will be justified,” Zhurova summed up.

I, Who am stunned, have only two questions here. The first:

“Svetlana Sergeevna, and when it became known that in the first months after the successful performance at the Olympics, Chinese athletes (by the way, why only Chinese?) will they actively participate in events, meet with fans, give interviews, they will not have time and energy to train and they will not be able to come to the Friendship Games?”

And the second one:

“And what prevented the Chinese Olympic champions (and not only Chinese ones) from coming to the BRICS Games and why did the West not go into populist statements because of their absence?”

P. S. A few hours ago, the press service of the Organizing Committee of the Friendship Games commented on the information about the postponement of the competition to a new date:

“The Organizing Committee of the World Friendship Games continues to actively prepare for the tournament. At the moment, in connection with the proposal of the International Friendship Association (IFA) to postpone the Games to other dates, consultations are underway with all interested parties on new dates for the tournament. We will make an official announcement as soon as the appropriate decision is worked out.”

waiting for.